A Means to an End (WangXian)

Lan An

All of them spent hours combing through the library. Even Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen scoured through the forbidden library, hoping something in their private collection would shed some light, but they found limited information.

One book discussing the curse was found. Wen Qing sat at one of the tables in the library, reading the text over and over again, hoping to find some clues. 

The book highlighted a time when this curse happened before. At first unintentional, but continued to be fueled through the hatred of the castor.

The curse is meant to fester resentful energy, stopping any spiritual energy from doing what it is supposed to. In essence, it is meant to corrupt and halt the natural flow of spiritual energy. Even going as far as affecting the core, though sometimes not nearly as potent. There are many side affects that this curse causes, such as a stunted golden core growth, limited spiritual energy, limited healing properties, and mental afflictions.

Wen Qing speculated this is why none of her medicines have worked in reducing Wei Wuxian's nightmares. It also explains why the marks on his back healed so gruesomely. The curse stopped his golden core from healing it properly.

"Is this why Wei-xiong has such an affinity towards resentful energy?" Nie Huaisang questioned after finishing another boring scroll.

"It's possible," Wen Qing replied, flipping the page of her book. "There's more to it than that. It takes a strong determination and extremely desperate measures to be able to manipulate the energy," she explained. "However, his constant exposure to resentful energy, though not truly resentful energy, made his body slightly more accustomed to it than the average person."

Nie Huaisang looked contemplative and pursed his lips. "I suppose it could be a combination of things."

Wei Wuxian frowned. "Huaisang, is something bothering you?" he asked and shifted his body towards his friend.

Nie Huaisang frowned for a moment. His silence gained the attention of everyone in the room. "Well, you didn't start using resentful energy until the burial mounds. Yes, you remember how to manipulate it, but why wasn't it more persistent?"

"What do you mean?" Wen Ning asked.

"Wei-xiong, what we saw in empathy was extremely difficult. It explains Wen Qing's explanation as to why you were able to use it. You were completely surrounded, and you needed to survive, but ...."

"It was different this time," Wei Wuxian finished.

"Different?" Lan Wangji questioned.

"Yes," he replied. "Resentful energy is very reluctant. It doesn't like being controlled. It only likes to control you. It took me months to figure out how to get around that. It took me months to essentially appeal to the resentful energy and manipulate it."

"What you're saying is resentful energy has to be somewhat in agreement with you to control it?" Wen Qing asked.

"Yes and no. You have to weaken it down, or in my sense, I used an amulet to keep it docile enough for me to control."

"When the energy is weak, it's easier to control, but strong bursts of it can cause a person to lose control," Nie Huaisang continued to explain. "The amulet helped stop that, but you don't have that anymore."

"No, but Gusu is not known for having places heavily tainted with resentful energy. Not like the burial mounds or the Wen Sect," Wei Wuxian explained. "So I wasn't exposed to any overwhelming energy, even on the night hunt."

"But it would still have been reluctant. Not to mention, Wen Qing said the energy was trying to warn you. Why? How?"

Wei Wuxian looked down. Nie Huaisang's questions brought in too many unknown variables. He's thought about this himself, but he chalked it up to a low amount of resentful energy in the air. A person can control resentful energy on their own without the amulet, it just wouldn't be as much. However, Nie Huaisang is right. Resentful energy is naturally resistant, so why would it warn him?